Simple Life

Thom S. Rainer, Art Rainer

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781433668593
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Religión

The research and change methods that made Simple Church a multiawarded, #1 ministry best seller are now applied to everyday matters in Simple Life. Authors Thom S. Rainer and Art Rainer interviewed a cross-section of 1, 077 individuals to confirm that most people feel their lives are overly stressful and misguided, not allowing enough time for what really counts. As they share these highly relatable stories, the Rainers chart a simple path from joyless to joyful.

Breaking life down into four key sections (Time, Relationships, God, Money), the authors show how four key goals (Clarity, Movement, Alignment, Focus) can begin to foster a life that is more spiritual and less busy, a life rich in experiences with family and friends rather than double-booked to-do lists and late nights at the office. The book even lays out an easy-to-follow action plan that will move readers assuredly toward the simple life in just thirty days.

 

 

 

PART 1

 

 

Simple Life: How
to Make Your Time
Really Count

CHAPTER 1

______________________________________________________

I Want to Spend
More Time Doing
Things That Matter

______________________________________________________

I (Art) read grave markers:

“Automatic Angel”

“Beloved Wife, Mother, Grandmother, and Great-Grandmother”

“Our Sweetheart”

“The music may be stilled, but the memory remains”

“Forever in our hearts”

“All things come and go yet you remain in our hearts”

Undoubtedly the engravings provide some comfort to those still living. Maybe it just helped give closure. Maybe they felt like their dead could somehow sense that they were missed. Maybe it was one last act to show love. Maybe they wanted others, like me, to see that underneath the sod lay a body that was once breathing, moving, and talking. Beneath the headstone was a body that was once alive, and when it was alive, it was something special to them.

Some markers still have blank spots, anticipating another's death. A wife who passed away was waiting for her husband's body to be laid next to her. Her time line was already engraved in the rock, but her husband was still increasing the number next to his dash. So her physical body waited.

I walked around for a little while, looking, thinking. I passed marker after marker. Each one represented a life that had come and gone. Each one placed there in memory of a human being that once walked this earth, an earth that you and I now walk.

I soon came across a granite marker with a bronze plate screwed into the stone. On the plate was molded the name “Arthur.”

That's my name.

I stared at it for a while. This name represented another Arthur, but one day that same name on a stone will represent me. It will represent my body. It will represent my life, a life that will be over. I was looking at my physical end.

I had no relatives, no friends who were buried at this site. I knew of nobody beneath the ground on which I walked, and yet I had a connection with each one. They were my physical future; I was their physical past. This thing called life that I am experiencing, they have already experienced.

I came to this cemetery to gain perspective. When facing the topic of time, I could not think of a more inspirational location than to be surrounded by those whose earthly story had come to an end. If they could, what would they tell us? Now that their lives are over, what wisdom would they want to pass on? What were their regrets? Where did they get it right? Though the sands of time in my life's hourglass are still running for me, with every breath I breathe, I am moving toward my physical closure.

My body will become like theirs.

On each grave marker is a dash between two years. The dash is time, and that is where we are, in our dash. And before there is some year placed on the other end, we need to figure this whole time thing out. And it all starts with one day.

Humans at Risk

The value of time is not lost on our culture. We spend massive amounts of money developing new ways to increase the efficiency of our breathing moments on earth.

With each passing day our culture becomes more and more proficient in the ways that we can maximize time in our lives. We often joke that when we purchase a computer, the software is obsolete by the time we leave the store's doors. Because of the time-saving technology that has defined our generation, we are able to do more, learn more, and experience more in a lifetime than any of the generations that preceded us. And this is good. God created us with intellects to explore His world and do great things with it.

But we do have a problem. Our obsession with time has become unhealthy. It has permeated into areas of our lives that it should never have entered.

With good intentions we have gotten into the mind-set of “making the most out of our time.” No one ever thought, I am going to fill up my life with so many things that I feel like I can't even breathe. No, the thought probably sounded more like, I think it would benefit my life if I did this. And if it stopped there, it might be fine. But then we want something else, something more. We don't let go of the former and still pursue the other. After a few more “enrichments,” our life is out of control.

Busyness has consumed us.

In our survey we were amazed to see that approximately 44 percent of respondents agreed that if their daily life continued at the current pace, they would probably have health problems. That number is alarming. And as frightening as it may sound, they are probably right. The stress of a go-go-go lifestyle has been linked to some of the following:

• heart disease
• obesity
• depression
• memory problems
• sleep disorders
• anxiety
• high blood pressure

Our obsession with time has come at a high cost. We are literally putting our lives at risk for the pursuit of personal gain.

Of course, not just our physical health is suffering. Our families are also impacted by the fallout of this problem. Some 57 percent of married survey respondents admitted that they rarely are able to go on a date with their spouses. Another 84 percent of the married respondents said they need to spend more time with their spouse.

Our children are inundated with activities. Little Billy is an athlete. Rarely does he have a season without practice after practice. Little Mary Lynn is a classroom superstar. Her free time is filled with math camps, band practice, and French club. By the way, she is also class president. Though we may not realize it, we are training our kids to be busy, to follow in our shortcomings. During the earliest stages of life, we are already molding their minds to sense that free time is wasted time.

If our children are most easily influenced during their childhood, and the most influential people in a child's life are their parents, what does that say about the impact of our lifestyle on our children?

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” But what if our influence, our training, is wrong? Will they depart from it?

Somehow God, the giver of time, is being ignored. We are too busy for Him. Our children are too busy for Him.

We are hurting ourselves, our children, and others.

How long can this continue? How fast are we able to go until something gives, something falls apart? What will be the breaking point?

The faster an object goes, the more difficult it is to stop and the greater impact it will have when it hits something. As we become more and more inundated with activities, we will find it increasingly difficult to break away from the life we now live. And when something does finally give, the outcome can be disastrous. We've seen it on the highway: a car mangled on the side of the road. Before the wreck this car was moving at incredible speeds, getting to where it needed to be. But something happened; something made the driver lose control. Maybe something unexpected came in his path. Maybe he overcorrected. Whatever happened, the result is a mangled piece of metal. The speed of the car exaggerated the outcome. It was fast and powerful. So was the crash.

We are at risk. The frantic way in which we do life cannot be sustained. Something will come in our paths, something unexpected. And that something will cause a dramatic crash in our lives.

You already know this. You sense that you are at risk. You see that the ability to “have time” is dwindling in your life. Your day has become way too full.

And you don't want it that way. You want something different. Something more. And yet, something less. The simple life.

When More Becomes Less

One of the most powerful stories in the Bible about the allocation of time takes up five verses in Luke 10:38-42.

The story involves two sisters, Mary and Martha. Lazarus, Jesus' friend whom He will later raise from ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Author
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Part 2
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Part 3
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Part 4
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Conclusion